ILLUMINZ

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of Elevationgroup G.N.D LTD

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Professional Online-congresses and Online-summits for building an email list, earning profits, getting reputation and expert status. An Online-summits is the best online-marketing-tool, when done correctly.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire ILLUMINZ to accomplish?

• Professional Software-system for online-summits and online-congresses
• Updates and Maintainance
• Implementing several other Software-Systems
• Helping me realizing my ideas and goals

SOLUTION

How did you find ILLUMINZ?

We conducted a intense application process for delivering the first milestones.

Why did you select ILLUMINZ over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned
• Assessment-Results

How many teammates from ILLUMINZ were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We have different several software applications, such as online-course-Plattform, online-summit-plattform, a coaching portal, a tool for expert assessment, and many more, that we use as a basis for our business and building consulting processes upon it. Illuminz was designing, specifying, developing, testing and maintaining all software infrastructure and continuously improving it.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We were able to build up our company on basis of Illuminz 100% financed with our own privat means. We are in a highly competitive market and were able to work around 10 times leaner than the market. Therefore we are able to outperform the market and play in a league, that usually only multidollar companies are playing.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

The team of Illuminz is virtually integrated in our team and we look at Illuminz at part of our company. They always respond to our needs extremely quickly and are there if something special happens, even at late times or out of office times or during the night. We are very happy to have such reliable partners.

What was your primary form of communication with ILLUMINZ?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

With ILLUMINZ, I was able to realize my ideas and dreams, that I had in my head. Working with Software-Developers often is a pain in ... With Illuminz, it made dreams come true. There is a close communication, we solved a lot of challenges together and Illuminz became more than partners, but friends during the years of cooperation.

Are there any areas for improvement or something ILLUMINZ could have done differently?

Software development always is a area, where new things are implemented, that were not there before. Therefore unforeseen things happen and both partners have to be aware and able to work arising challenges out. This was wonderful with Illuminz.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a small software vendor. We’ve been in business since 2016, and a lot of our products are focused on education and public schools.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ILLUMINZ?

I have a lot of contacts and experience in the software industry, and I know a lot of gifted developers, but the one super-expensive, hard-to-find skill set is website design and UX design.

We had a project come across our radar that required a lot of capabilities in that space, and we couldn’t find anyone that suited our needs. I’d had a few contacts with ILLUMINZ previously at another position and decided to give them a try.

It was a bit of a different project for us, as we were building a not-very-technical, market-facing product for employees of school districts to use. We wanted the site to have a consumer-friendly look and feel.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We came to ILLUMINZ with the expectation that they could give us a workable design — sketches, designs, and mockups of web pages — and they did just that. After the design, there were many backend tasks that needed to be done. My team excels with those, but there was also the problem of building the actual web pages through HTML and implementing the design and graphics. ILLUMINZ was interested in that business as wells, so the project turned into an implementation. The technologies used included HMTL, PHP, Linux, Apache, and MySQL.

Because we have a unique server requirement regarding regulatory issues and so forth, we have to do hosting on our end. ILLUMINZ exists within the servers we provide, however, and they fix bugs and make changes. It’s truly a joint effort.

What is the team composition?

In the beginning, we had a fairly small team of 4–5 people that were split between pure UX design skills and web development skills. It’s easy, at this stage, to design products that aren’t feasible to build, so having a connection to web developers early on allowed us to build a realistic design. As we moved forward, the composition shifted more toward traditional developers.

Some people have been there since day one, including our main contact, who acts as a project manager. He coordinates different skills and people that come on and off. There’s also a software architect who has driven a lot of our technical design and implementation. Right now, we’re working directly with several engineers.

How did you come to work with ILLUMINZ?

I had a bit of contact with them in a prior position that I held, discovering that small offshore companies can often drive innovation with certain sets of skills without having to hire a huge internal team.

We approached 4–5 companies for this project and decided that ILLUMINZ performed the best during the selection process. We’ve been a loyal customer ever since.

How much have you invested with them?

We feel that we’ve saved an enormous amount of money, spending around $25,000–$50,000 so far. If we’d hired staff internally, then it would be many times that.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve worked together since December 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

The success we’ve had with our customers stands out. We have a partnership with a company that sells our software in the public education world in New York state. There are around 700 school districts in the state, and we’ve gotten into a significant percentage of them. Tens of thousands of employees use our product every single day.

During the process, everyone who viewed the design sketches and sample pages resonated deeply with them.

How did ILLUMINZ perform from a project management standpoint?

This is always a challenge when you work with an outsourcing agency: they have their own way of managing things and their own external pressures we don’t have visibility into. ILLUMINZ team does a quality job within that.

We weren’t big enough in the early days of our relationship to think about managing a project in with a high level of detail; we worked independently and brought our pieces together. If we were going to do another project with them, we would think about designating managers for them or allowing them to act in that role. What we’ve done has worked for our small budget, though.

What did you find most impressive about them?

My favorite part is the balance of what we’ve been able to build and the price we’ve paid to get it. Every project comes with tradeoffs, and we recognize that we’ve been doing a lot more than we’d be able to do without ILLUMINZ regarding the customer experience we deliver. We wouldn’t have gotten off the ground without them.

I also appreciated their ability to use standard technologies to build our website. Relationships with outsourcing partners always have a degree of uncertainty in them, whether around replacement or someone going out of business, so the flexibility of building with technologies that any vendor could pick up with little trouble was very valuable.

One final highlight is ILLUMINZ practice of easily creating sample pages during development. There was a lot of iteration and trial and error, but by the end of the process, we felt that we had something very solid to build. A lot of relationships go off the rails when you invest time and money in designing a product that can’t be built or that doesn’t fit your needs, and being able to show potential users sample pages ensured that we wouldn’t run into that roadblock.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We run a very small operation, but as our customer base has grown, we’ve seen the need to do big company tasks: QA, testing, and all the goals around them. There are definitely cases in our work with ILLUMINZ where defects could have been caught and ended up impacting customers negatively. These are performance testing, scalability, and security considerations that every mature company has, and that we’re in the early stages of defining.

I fully expect that, over time, we’ll push our relationship with ILLUMINZ in that direction.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re capable of creating a huge range of different products, so the more clarity you can bring to what you’re doing and why, then the easier the relationship will be. ILLUMINZ can guide you at that stage as well. Get the plan right and you’ll probably be happy with the results.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the owner of The Mono Company, a boutique smart building consultancy.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ILLUMINZ?

I wanted to develop a smart building platform so that I could help my clients better understand what it is that we do and what tangible outcomes we could provide for them.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

ILLUMINZ started by doing some frontend designs on Figma. I shared my ideas for the wireframes, and their team put together a proposal for it. They went on to develop a web and mobile app, both of which are now being further built to become a standard MVP. Everything is cloud-based and running on MongoDB and a Linux AWS server, and their team used React and React Native for the mobile app.

Some of the main features of the app are user registration, a booking module, and a ticketing system for reporting any issues. The app also houses a news feed which is essentially a combination of Instagram and a blog page. There is also a map view of each building on the platform. 

We have been extending the commission to go through little chunks of work at a time.

What is the team composition?

I am working with about eight people in total. My main contacts are Nishant (Senior Designer) who is our frontend designer, Neeraj (Web Developer) who is our backend developer, and Ankur (Business Solution Specialist).

How did you come to work with ILLUMINZ?

I found them through Dribbble.com. It’s a platform that connects us with designers from around the world.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $25,000–$40,000 AUD (approximately $18,000–$29,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

I’ve been working with them since June 2021, and the plan is to complete the project by early January 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

ILLUMINZ has been really great. We have progressively tested the modules that they’ve built, and we now have a working booking module that gives us the ability to create a space and book it online. We can also add new users, report issues, and create tickets on the platform. Everything has been working well.

The web app is now being implemented, and I have presented the product to customers and clients, all of whom are pretty happy with how it looks and functions.

How did ILLUMINZ perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management is pretty good. All IT projects experience some drift when it comes to the schedule, but ILLUMINZ is able to keep close to the original timelines. We use Slack and Zoom for communication, and they are very quick to respond. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

ILLUMINZ’s frontend designs are really impressive. It’s what drew me to their proposal in the first place.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they are pretty good in terms of service quality and pricing.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be ready with a clear project brief. Having some wireframes or mood boards could also help quicken the discovery phase.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

MySeaTime is a niche job website and social network for seafarers. I'm the founder and CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ILLUMINZ?

We hired ILLUMINZ to design and develop a responsive website from scratch.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goals were to create user-friendly designs, develop a website using PHP and Laravel, and build a system that automatically filled job applications with user profile data. 

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I considered at least 12 companies and held face-to-face meetings with most of them. ILLUMINZ clearly understood the project, provided a roadmap, and carried out R&D before receiving an offer.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Based on my ideas, they built the information architecture of a website that auto-generates application forms and automatically emails them to companies. I had numerous meetings with their design and development teams, who completed the project with ease. They used brainstorming sessions to build the most challenging elements, including the question and answer section, the application form, and the UI/UX for displaying lengthy user profile data. 

What was the team composition?

We had two dedicated PHP Laravel developers and designers, plus HTML developers as needed. Our project manager checked their progress at least once a week.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

After launching the website, they helped me generate traffic. Within a few months, we generated about 50,000 unique monthly visitors.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

I'm a difficult client, since I look for perfection. I left a company midway through this project because they couldn't deliver. The fact that our association lasted more than two years, until they completed the project, attests to their dedication and the quality of their work.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They went out of their way to help us reach new heights. They considered their job well done when it gained traction and achieved success, not just when it was complete. 

Are there any areas for improvement?

They recently hired some amazing talent. Even if there were areas for improvement, which I'm not sure that there are, then these amazing employees filled that void.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of marketing for Caresoft Global, an engineering solutions company that works closely with major automotive suppliers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ILLUMINZ?

We had an old website that needed to be rebuilt. We wanted a site that would allow us to showcase major cars from global auto shows.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

ILLUMINZ updated our old site, improving both the UX/UI and designs. We provided mockups, and they used Angular and React to make the changes. The site handles a lot of data, about 300 photos per car. Users are also about to compare features across cars, comparing the photos to each other.

What is the team composition?

I had one main point of contact and a team of five other people.

How did you come to work with ILLUMINZ?

They developed an app that I thought was great, so I figured out who built it and then hired them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from July-October 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Users said that the old site was confusing and clunky. However, they’ve loved the new site, saying it’s intuitive and outstanding. Feedback has been excellent, especially on the UX.

How did ILLUMINZ perform from a project management standpoint?

They were receptive and responsive. We mainly communicated via Slack.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They added more features than what we asked for, and they should learn to stick to their clients’ requirements.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the owner of Fansquab, a social media platform that provides a unique fan base to users across the world.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ILLUMINZ?

We wanted to bring a new and unique feature to social media that allows users to view the top fans of either celebrities, TV shows, businesses, or organizations.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Several vendors reached out when I made the job public. I chose ILLUMINZ based on their portfolio, competitive pricing, and their promise of service before and after the product launch.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

They designed and developed the website as well as a responsive mobile app for Android and iOS platforms. I described what I wanted and they came up with the design and layout of the web app. I provided the logo and images, which they incorporated seamlessly.

The main thing I wanted to be highlighted was the ranking feature, which is the main feature of the product. I tested it thoroughly to see if ranks would change based on user input. ILLUMINZ went to work and produced exactly what I was looking for. They took care of everything from the initial ideas to launching the product.

What was the team composition?

I interacted with the team leader and he basically took care of everything. Dealing with only one individual made it easy.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

This app is currently free for everyone to use. Premium features will be added when certain milestones have been reached while we continue to increase our user base.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

They were impressive in this regard, going out of their way to make sure they understood my needs. Whenever emails became unclear, they would make time to sit down and talk over Skype. They also quickly tackled and resolved any encountered issues. Additionally, whenever I told them that something wasn’t perfect, they kept working until I was completely satisfied.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They work well together as a team and know their strengths. Their developers always knew how to work with designs created by another team, incorporating them into the code so everything would line up. I’ve said this about them and I will say it again, they're a well-oiled machine.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

My only concern is the time zone difference. I found it difficult to schedule Skype meetings at times. They can eliminate this by having a representative available around the clock to cater to worldwide customers.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m trying to establish a startup in the field of smart parking. We’re going to provide navigation for people who are looking for parking. We’re also going to provide insight and ways to optimize their resources.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ILLUMINZ?

I needed a trusted agency who could work with me to build an initial proof of concept to use in some cities and see what the attraction is. After that, we can move forward with getting funding.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I gave them a brief idea of how the screen should look and what I had in mind for the analytic dashboard. They did the initial mockup and design. They’ve been extremely helpful to me for developing and designing the initial solution. The app is being built for iOS and Android. They’re using React, while the backend is developed in PHP for all the APIs.

What is the team composition?

There are eight resources assigned to us. I mainly talk to Vikas (CTO, ILLUMINZ) and Sanchit (CEO, ILLUMINZ).

How did you come to work with ILLUMINZ?

A past client of theirs referred me to them. I talked to six companies and it took two months to decide. I’m glad I chose ILLUMINZ as it’s been really good working with them.

How much have you invested with them?

$40,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2018 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

A good friend reviewed the code and said that it was pretty neat. There were very few bugs.

They were very helpful in offering solutions—our proof of concept is a very different due to their solutions. They’re very open when giving advice and changing the things we require. They don’t charge us more to make those changes like other companies do.

How did ILLUMINZ perform from a project management standpoint?

The project management is good. We use Slack, Jira, and GitHub.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re open. I know who’s working on my project. I can count on that person.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could be a little more aggressive.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you involve them as a partner instead of just getting them to produce something. They’re really helpful—they’re working because they like to work and not just for money. Involve them and make them feel like they’re part of the product.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We gather data on hotels and other establishments for assessing sustainability.

What is your position?

I am the founder of the startup.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with ILLUMINZ?

We needed development work for an application in the tourism industry. Its role is to store performance data that is based on input from a hotel's guests, and so forth. The application is still relatively new and we're actually in the process of changing its name.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

They worked on the application from the start to the end, including visual design, functional development and quality assurance.

ILLUMINZ has also built a website for us, mostly contributing to the backend functionality. They developed other Android and iOS apps for us in the past.

The team that worked for us was comprised of eight people.

How did you come to work with ILLUMINZ?

We'd previously worked with them and were satisfied with the outcome. We decided to assign them bigger projects.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The total development cost is in the range of $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The work is ongoing. ILLUMINZ is working on updates and new features constantly for us.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The application has more than 4,000 users within different hotels at the moment.

In the beginning, we had a meeting for determining what we wanted from the application. ILLUMINZ took over the project and introduced possibilities that I was not aware of. I initially thought some elements would be out of the scope of the project, but they turned out to be beneficial to the final result. ILLUMINZ had a good understanding of what the app does.

How did ILLUMINZ perform from a project management standpoint?

They are very responsive to our wishes. Whenever we send them a modification request, ILLUMINZ will get it done by the next morning.

They provided us with a platform where we could see the progress of the work and determine which features worked and which didn't. At the same time, I worked with a debugging person communicating with me through Skype in order to fully explain functionalities. He acted as my personal developer, and I have to give him all the credit he is due. I didn't have to explain what I wanted in full detail. He was able to understand my needs from very simple terms.

What distinguishes ILLUMINZ from other providers?

They're an honest group of developers and they treat every client as if they were family. ILLUMINZ took over my project as if it was their own. Their unique feature is that they care about the quality of their work more than they do about money.

Is there anything ILLUMINZ could have improved or done differently?

I can't think of anything. Their main target in my situation was pleasing the customer. Having a development team that could understand what you wanted to achieve was key to our success. There were things I didn't describe as well as I should have, which resulted in ILLUMINZ doing additional work with no extra charge. I respect their team.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are part of a larger organization in the market research space. We are the software division for a group that builds surveys, collects data, runs analytics, and generally provides data to researchers. We work on development for our in-house surveying platform. We also work on ad-hoc projects for clients, in the form of web apps and similar items. We don't market ourselves too much as a development firm, but it is essentially the area in which we operate.

What is your position?

I am the chief innovation officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with ILLUMINZ?

I was looking for developers that could provide high-quality deliverables in terms of custom code and design collateral. We did not want to hire full-time resources locally, but rather find an outsourced solution.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

The size of their team depends on the size of the project and the current task. At any given time, there will be, at least, two people working on a project, and the numbers have gone up to six to eight developers.

In most cases, ILLUMINZ will assign a senior developer for communication, but they can also provide project managers that can deal with clients on a nontechnical basis.

How did you come to work with ILLUMINZ?

Before working with ILLUMINZ, I would tend to use freelancing sites like Elance. I'd also gone through three other development companies. At the end of the day, I settled for ILLUMINZ because they produced exactly what I wanted. I found their prices to be a bit higher than the average but, for the quality they offer, it is worth it to spend more.

My relationship started with them when I was working as a freelancer myself. I used them for website and small application development work. Whenever I got overwhelmed, I would contact ILLUMINZ. Initially, I gave them small projects in order to assess their quality level and turnaround time. 

As I moved to my current company, the same relationship continued. We would pass off parts of projects or even full projects to them.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

We've worked on small projects that could be even less than $1,000, but have also had $300,000 work with ILLUMINZ.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our relationship started about six years ago.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We normally assess ILLUMINZ based on time and budget tracking. In development projects, there are occurrences that lead to more hours and, as a result, a bigger financial cost. Even so, our estimations for their work have been accurate.

How did ILLUMINZ perform from a project management standpoint?

The relationship we have with them is more of a partnership. The quality assurance team is entirely on our end, so we receive pre-beta versions of products, for the most part. We do additional testing, which leads to a back and forth. ILLUMINZ outputs decent stacks.

I do know that they offer their own QA [quality assurance] persons, which would lead to better product quality. We've always opted to do this work in-house.

We use JIRA internally for project tracking. Whenever ILLUMINZ brought in a new developer, we would add them to our JIRA account and offer the necessary permissions. They are flexible in terms of jumping on board with the solutions that we employ.

ILLUMINZ has their own project management software, which they've built. Earlier on, we did use it, but prefer to keep things centralized. Documentation is exchanged through a variety of means, from Google Docs to email.

What distinguishes ILLUMINZ from other providers?

They offer reliable and transparent service and they go out of their way to ensure their clients are completely satisfied with the final solution.

Is there anything ILLUMINZ could have improved or done differently?

Earlier on in the relationship, we had communication and responsiveness issues. I brought that to them, and it was resolved. This is the extent of issues we've had with ILLUMINZ.

ILLUMINZ work best when they have a clear outline of what the project is. This keeps everyone on the same page. Not keeping a clear picture of the requirements will create confusion.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of Break Records

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are a record label

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire ILLUMINZ to accomplish?

• redesign our website

SOLUTION

How did you find ILLUMINZ?

Referral

Why did you select ILLUMINZ over others?

• Good value for cost
• Referred to me

How many teammates from ILLUMINZ were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Rebuild the website, include case studies, a music player, and make it interactive

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

It’s rare to find a team that not only understands your vision but also elevates it — and that’s exactly what I found in their team. From day one, they were collaborative, responsive, and creatively intuitive. They didn’t just check boxes — they brought fresh ideas, clean design, and smart functionality that made the site feel truly aligned with my brand.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

We found a great workflow after a few weeks of working together. Salil and Aman were beneficial!

What was your primary form of communication with ILLUMINZ?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The quality of the work

Are there any areas for improvement or something ILLUMINZ could have done differently?

n/a